!994 Chevy Caprice Classic Fan Problem

This is impossible to believe. The service department is in business to make money servicing cars and it makes no sense that they wouldn't want to bring your car in.

Your best bet, since you want to do the job yourself is to go buy a Haynes manual. They cost about $15 in the auto parts stores. Should be a pretty easy job.

I'm not saying they would not do the job, sorry if made you think that, they would just say what they did the last time I went there>

Ummm sure we can get you umm lemmee see here yah I can get you in next April the 21st at 4pm is that Ok with you, it was January at the time and I needed an alternator put in, or at the time I thought I needed an alternator, it Ended up being just the Battery.

I have no experience with your particular car, but I have a bit of (hopefully) useful information. I did some work on an old police car ('92 caprice with the 5.7L engine) and it had a purely engine driven fan. Interesting that they'd put electric fans in there.

You are likely not actually coming close to overheating providing the other fan is still working. How close to the red line does it go? If it's winter time out I wouldn't think you'd need both fans unless you're creeping up a mountain pulling about 3000 pounds. My guess is that both fans do not kick on at the same temperature. The fan that no longer works was likely the primary fan, so the secondary waits until the engine gets a little hotter before it kick in.

A haynes repair manual would be a great help if you want to change the fan yourself. It is almost never a hard task. I personally buy either a haynes or chiltons for each vehicle I buy. It pays for its self the first time you use it to repair something you'd otherwise take in to the shop.

Something else that I just thought of. It is possible that a fuse has blown for your cooling fan (possibly a relay). A locked electrical motor rotor will draw enormous amps and blow a fuse somewhere. If that's the case, perhaps neither of your fans are working if they're both on the same fuse. Before you replace your fan you should test it to see if that is your problem.

The left side fan is working because I've waited until it gets to temperature and opened the hood and looked and there it is, the right side is just sitting there idle doing nothing at all. I've also noticed that during the day when it's hotter out than at night the temp gauge needle will go closer to the red line faster than at night but both times ( day or night) it gets there real fast, I have not actually allowed it to touch the red line as of yet or allowed it to overheat, but it's come real close where it normally sits right in the middle of the zone when both fans were working properly.

As for the locked motor problem, I had thought of that and gave it a couple of sharp raps with a hammer hoping that it might unfreeze it, not hard enough to do any damage but hopefully hard enough to unlock it, (no dice). As I mentioned before in the original message the day I smelled the smoke I actually saw smoke coming from the motor when the snow/ice slush had the fan surrounded and prevented the fan from moving, kind of a once in a lifetime shot if you ask me that much snowy slushy ice could get trapped up in there to prevent the fan from moving just on one side long enough to burn out the motor.

What do you think? How much do you think a Chevy Garage will charge me to change out the motor? Doesn't look to be too hard of a job & my back can't handle the job any more/ Don't have the place to do the work in this weather either. Or do you think any good garage should be able to do that for me?

Thanks again.

It's been said here already - it's a trivial job. Any garage can do it. How much will it cost? Don't know - call around. The people who will be doing the work are a better place to ask that question than a newsgroup.

If you saw it smoking, the fan motor is probably shot. I was suggesting possibly a fuse had blown for that fan since the rotor was locked (with snow).

I'm still thinking you have a primary and secondary cooling fan system, where the second fan (that is still working) is the secondary which only comes on if the primary isn't working well enough (which is a given in your case). That will mean it won't kick on until the engine is hotter than normal. When the operational fan is working the gauge is still that close to red, and stays there? I'd assume that during the winter the secondary fan alone would be enough to cool off the engine at least to the point where the computer tells the secondary fan to turn off. (Because it doesn't 'know' the primary isn't working).

It would be relatively easy, but price is the wrong question to be asking me. Unless I ever have a mint-condition vehicle that I'd like to keep that way I'll always to the work myself because I find the hourly rate for hiring the work out to be too much for my taste.

Hi!

I have exactly the same problem on my 94 Chevy Caprice 9C1. The engine starts to overheat in traffic, the needle goes up to the red then the fan brings it down about a quarter. The car was already at two mechanics and they don't know what the problem is. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Joe

Hi!

I have exactly the same problem on my 94 Chevy Caprice 9C1. The engine starts to overheat in traffic, the needle goes up to the red then the fan brings it down about a quarter. The car was already at two mechanics and they don't know what the problem is. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Joe

My right side radiator fan got clogged with snow. I smelled it smoking and removed the snow. Now the fan is not working and the car runs hot when I drive it.

How hard would this be to change myself? Is it just a motor that removes off of the fan by a few bolts and a wire plug?

Where on the net can I look this up and order it if I wanted to? It's got the 350 engine. _________________________

You can probably do it yourself, especially if you have a mechanically inclined friend to look over your shoulder. The idea is to separate the motor from the fan and from its frame, then install a replacement. (Before replacing the motor, be sure it is getting voltage; that it's not just a blown fuse.) It may be necessary to remove the entire frame/motor/fan to get access to the motor and fan on the bench.

The websites below will let you describe your vehicle, then will give you a part number and a price for what you need:

Good luck.

Rodan.

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wrote:

I have the same problem on my 94 Chevy Caprice 9C1. The engine starts to overheat in traffic, the needle goes up to the red then the fan brings it down about a quarter. Two mechanics couldn't find the problem. Any advice appreciated! ___________________

It may actually be a different problem. SoSad's car has one fan not working. Your car's fan/fans work, but not efficiently. The fan motor is turned on by a temperature sensor somewhere. The sensor may be slow to respond; not snapping on until overheating occurs. Find the sensor and the relay it controls and check them out. Another possibility is a poor ground not allowing enough current to run the fan at full speed.

Good luck.

Rodan.